Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Rose Ellen Buckle

1870 –1905

Originally a domestic servant from London, wife of Frederick Buckle, died at the age of 35

Relatives

Frederick Buckle (986) — husband

• Christopher Dolton

Rose Ellen Buckle; 1870 -1905

Rose was not a native of Berkhamsted. Indeed, she lived in the town for only the last few years of her life. She was born in London and was baptised in Westminster on 27^th February 1871. Her parents were Frederick and Ann Freemen and the family lived in Berwick Street in Westminster. Her father is described in the 1871 census an Oilman and in the 1881 census as an Oil and Colourman.  An Oilman sold lamp oil. One might expect an Oil and Colourman to be involved in the selling of paint, but that is not the case: an Oil and Colourman was a dealer in the victualling trade.

Although Rose would only have been 11 years old, she was not with her family at the time of the 1881 census. We know from the next census taken in 1891 that she was then in domestic service. It was not uncommon in Victorian times for girls to enter service at a young age and it may be that by 1881 Rose was already working as a servant.

As standards of social decorum increased in later Victorian times, so too the need for servants increased. By the time of the 1891 census 1.3 million women and girls were working as domestic servants. That is one in three women between the ages of 15 and 20. They were usually recruited between the ages of 10 and 13. There was a tax on indoor male servants whose pay was also greater. Women were cheaper and more easily dominated and kept in their place. A servant working for a middleclass family would usually live in the family’s house (as Leah did). Hours were long and the pay was poor, £6 -£12 per annum. Servants were under the constant scrutiny and whilst living closely with the family were kept rigidly apart from it. Most employers felt they had a right to look through their servant’s belongings and it was not until 1860 that it became illegal to beat a servant. It was legal for employers to order servants to accompany them to church, but the servants had to sit at the back in a segregated section. There was no job security if a servant fell ill or committed some misdemeanour. Being a servant did have some advantages; a servant probably lived in better surroundings than her original home and some families were very good to their servants. 

Whilst we may not know where Rise was in 1881, we can locate in 1891. She was then 22 years old and working as a servant at Cashio Bridge House near Rickmansworth. Cashio Bridge House was then occupied by a tea importer, Edward Moon and his family..

Rose married in 1894. Her husband was Frederick Buckle. He had been born in Suffolk, but in 1891 he too worked at Cashio Bridge House, in his case as a groom. The wedding took place in St Pancras, where Rose and Frederick must have settled after their wedding as Rose gave birth in 1897 to her first child, a daughter, Ellen Hannah Buckle, that birth being registered in St Pancras. Rose and Frederick soon moved from London.  In 1901 they were living at 8 Bridge Street in Berkhamsted and Frederick was then working as a labourer.

Rose gave birth to two more children, both sons. Thomas Frederick Buckle was born in Berkhamsted in the second quarter of 1902 and John William Buckle in the second quarter of 1904.

Rose died on 13^th June 1905 and was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery on 16th June. She 35 years old. The family had moved from Bridge Street as Rose’s address at the time she died was 32 Cross Oak Road.

It appears from Rose’s death certificate that she was pregnant with a fourth child when she died. Her death certificate records the cause of death as “Erysipelus & abortion, Haemorrhage from a stomach ulceration.” Eriysipelus is a bacterial infection which usually affects the skin, but can cause complications in pregnancy including abortion or still birth.